Coffee granola slice

A caffeine-laced gluten free granola slice made with puffed amaranth, oats, almonds and buckwheat, and flavoured with tahini, coffee, maple and cinnamon.

Some adults only baking to cheer me up

Yup. I'm sick of winter and feeling rather low. What better (temporary) solution than a bit of home baking? And even better if it's just to suit myself. Kids, here's a carrot stick. I do love sweet treats laced with coffee (see exhibit A) and I've been thinking about creating some kind of baking with coffee for a while. I decided to refer back to two of my personal favourite recipes and adapt them to create this granola slice. Back when this blog was only a few months old I created these man-friendly muesli bars. They took a bit of tinkering to get right, but in the end the recipe was a real winner. I changed the ratios a bit and added coffee and cinnamon - happily this twist on the original is equally delicious. A good slice also needs a topping. Okay 'needs' might be overstating it. But I know how good the peanut butter fudge topping of this slice is, and made the safe assumption a coffee and almond version would do the trick nicely. I'd have liked to use almond butter in this topping, but had none left. I used ground almonds (almond meal) instead and it worked just fine - the topping isn't 100% smooth, but close enough for me. If you do have almond butter in the pantry, I'm confident it'll work perfectly, given the level 10 awesomeness of the original peanut butter recipe. The end result here is a maple sweetened, mildly coffee flavoured granola slice topped with a thin layer of fudgey coffee and almond frosting. On the day it's made, the granola slice is nicely crunchy. After a few days in the fridge it softens and becomes more cakey. Both ways are very nice. I highly recommend you find a comfy spot to enjoy a piece of this gluten free and vegan coffee granola slice, with a cup of Joe of course, and contemplate the sometimes eternally slow passing of the seasons.

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